


an announcement

by quibbler



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, mentions of violence and abortion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 14:21:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2113206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quibbler/pseuds/quibbler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily wakes up one day and Apparates to Cokeworth. She runs 2.5 kilometers as usual. So when she finds herself retching on the side of the road, she knows there's something wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an announcement

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2012 [welcome home ficathion](http://kolms.livejournal.com/19212.html), un-betaed. JK Rowling owns everything!

Some parts of Lily's daily routine have rarely changed. She goes for a run at the crack of dawn and barring that, she'll go as soon as the sun sets, a change she accepted after seventh year when she found herself mostly unable to leave her boyfriend's bed every morning. Whenever she could, she would run in her neighbourhood in Cokeworth. She comes back to take a shower. She eats a banana with her breakfast. (Not a ripe one. There must not be a single brown spot on it or she won't touch it.) She has a cup of coffee, once a habit she shared with her father and now a habit to honour his memory.

Lily wakes up one day and Apparates to Cokeworth. She runs 2.5 kilometers as usual. So when she finds herself retching on the side of the road, she knows there's something wrong.

She gets so caught up in the war now, finds herself acting on impulse rather than her usual rational thinking. It makes her blood boil when she hears the haughty whispers, people who think because their ancestors belonged to a line of pure magical folk that they were better than those just discovering their innate ability. She reads spellbooks by night because she doesn't sleep much these days, memorises the spells she doesn't know and perfecting the ones she does. She uses the knowledge she gained in dance classes and applies it to spellwork.

Nothing prepared her for this.

A moment passes where she is dumbstruck and wants the confirmation from St. Mungo's. But she _knows_ she is pregnant. She doesn't keep track of time anymore, not when any day could be her last. But she hasn't had her period in weeks and it never came late. She retches again at the thought before wiping her mouth, unable to bring herself to go home. James will worry, of course, but she has told him time and time again that she isn't the sort of woman to worry after, she can put up a fight. (He knows, he _should_ know. She has left bruises on his skin, his heart, his ego.)

As the idea sinks in, she feels like molten iron has filled her veins. She's too young, too inexperienced to be a mother. She spends her days battling and often loses more blood than Muggle doctors even know is possible. Lily isn't willing to give her life up yet, not when the future isn't safe for her, let alone a child. She's scarred and broken, hot-headed and argumentative. But most of all, now she is scared.

She contemplates getting rid of it, a secret that she would carry to her grave. But to not tell James would be a burden she'd never be able to bear, and though they aren't ready, she knows James won't let her go through with it. She Apparates back to their flat and there is James--sweet, reckless, and _hers_ \--her husband James, standing at the counter with a cup of coffee, her mug on the counter next to him with a banana to its left. She wants to appreciate the gesture but the smell of coffee makes her stomach churn and she turns away, shivering.

"What's wrong?"

She doesn't know how to tell him, how to share the burden with him so she does it the only way she knows how--bluntly. "I'm pregnant."

There's a moment of silence before the mug in James' hands falls and shatters, spraying him with hot coffee and a string of expletives follows her down the corridor to the bathroom.


End file.
